Idaho Towing Rights: Rate Sheets, 60-Day Storage Cap, Drop Fee

Every operative section of Idaho's towing law now carries the history note "added 2025, ch. 218, sec. 2." The 2025 Legislature rewrote sections 49-1806 through 49-1817 in one act, added a mandatory state towed vehicle portal, and built the notice, hearing and fee rules around it. Section 49-1817 makes the chapter uniform: its provisions apply throughout the state and in all political subdivisions, and no local or state authority may enact or enforce an ordinance, rule or regulation in conflict with it. A Boise or Coeur d'Alene towing ordinance cannot set a different storage cap or a different notice period. Throughout the chapter, "department" means the Idaho transportation department, under the definition at Idaho Code § 49-105(3).

For a tow off private property, Idaho Code § 49-1806(1) makes signage the trigger. A person having possession or control of real property, including commercial property, may have an unauthorized vehicle removed or booted only if there is posted on or near the property, in a clearly conspicuous location and in large print, a sign or notice stating that unauthorized vehicles will be removed or booted at the owner's expense and designating the name of the towing firm. A sign that warns about towing but does not name the towing firm does not satisfy the section. Section 49-1806(2) covers unposted non-commercial property: the possessor may still call a company to remove an abandoned vehicle, but the tow company must first have that person sign a release form identifying himself as the person in possession or control, identifying the vehicle, and taking responsibility for the removal. Section 49-1806(3) closes a common abuse: no vehicle is unauthorized and subject to removal or booting solely on the basis of expired or improper vehicle registration.

Idaho's drop fee rule is Idaho Code § 49-1810, and its scope is narrower than most drivers assume. It applies to a tow company towing, removing or impounding a vehicle "as directed by an authorized officer," excluding vehicles towed as part of an investigation or suspected stolen. On request of the owner or an authorized agent, the company must release the vehicle at the scene. If the vehicle is already attached to the tow truck or otherwise in tow, the regular scheduled tow fee may be charged. If it is not yet in tow, the release must be made and no charge may be assessed except a customary and reasonable charge for one-way mileage from the towing company's place of storage to the scene, plus the usual fee for the tow truck operator. If the owner does not tender that authorized fee, the operator may complete the impoundment. By its terms § 49-1810 governs officer-directed tows, so a driver who runs out to an apartment lot as a landlord-ordered § 49-1806 tow is being hooked up cannot rely on this section.

Rates work by disclosure rather than by a ceiling. Section 49-1814(2) requires a towing company to furnish its rate sheet to the department for law enforcement-directed tows, requires the department to make that sheet available to the public, and requires the company to post it at its place of business and provide it to consumers on request. Tow fees may not vary based on the value of the vehicle, and a charge more than what the rate sheet reflects for any service is deemed excessive. Section 49-1814(3) caps storage at sixty days from the date of tow. It also ties the storage clock to reporting: if the tow was reported in the portal within one business day excluding weekends and holidays, storage fees may run from the date of tow, but if it was not, storage fees do not begin accumulating until the company actually reports it. Section 49-1814(1) separately requires reasonable efforts to secure the vehicle and prevent further damage while it is stored.

Access to the car and to what is in it is free. Under § 49-1814(4)(a), any stored vehicle other than one held as part of a law enforcement investigation must be made available for physical inspection by the legal or registered owner, an authorized agent with a valid power of attorney, or an insurance representative, during reasonable business hours at no additional charge. Under § 49-1814(4)(b) no lien attaches to any personal property in or on the vehicle, and that property must be given to the registered owner or an agent holding a valid power of attorney during reasonable business hours at no additional charge, upon demand. The possessory lienholder stops being responsible for unattached personal property once the vehicle has been disposed of under the chapter.

Getting the vehicle back is governed by § 49-1811. The owner or a lienholder may take possession at any time before disposition by proving ownership and paying the towing, storage or booting costs, except where the vehicle was impounded for investigation or is suspected stolen. Taking a towed or booted vehicle without paying all charges in full is a misdemeanor and the vehicle may be recovered and returned to storage. The section also carries Idaho's strongest consumer lever: a towing company forfeits every fee except the scheduled tow fee, meaning no storage, impound, unauthorized repair or other charges, if it takes the vehicle somewhere other than as directed by the officer or as reasonably requested by the owner or an agent with power of attorney, if it refuses to release the vehicle for any reason other than nonpayment of fees it is lawfully entitled to, or if it performs repairs or improvements without a signed work order or recorded verbal consent. Refusing to pay a fee the company is not entitled to is expressly not grounds to withhold the vehicle. On release, § 49-1811(6) requires an itemized statement listing where the vehicle was towed from, where it is stored, the company's name, address and telephone number, the year, make, model and plate, the itemized towing and recovery charges, and the daily storage charge with the number of days stored.

Notice runs through the state. Under § 49-1807(1)(b) the tow company must report the tow in the department's towed vehicle portal within one business day, excluding weekends and holidays. Under § 49-1807(1)(c) the department then notifies the owners and lienholders of record, by electronic notice within one business day for those signed up for it and otherwise by first class mail within one business day, followed by further notices if the vehicle stays unclaimed. Section 49-1807(2) fixes what those notices must say, including the amount owed for towing, the daily rate for storage, the storage location, the right to a tow procedure hearing under § 49-1809, the right to claim personal property, and the right to file a declaration of opposition under § 49-1808. Thirty days after first notification, an unclaimed vehicle can move to a title or junk certificate in the tow company's name.

There are two ways to fight an Idaho tow, and they have different deadlines and different reach.

The declaration of opposition under Idaho Code § 49-1808 is the broader route. An owner who wants to dispute the fees, the claim, the disposition or any other issue with the possessory lienholder files it with the Idaho transportation department, and the department must receive it within twenty calendar days after the date of the first notification sent under § 49-1807(1)(c). Filing gives the declarant ten calendar days from the filing date to bring a legal action against the possessory lienholder. If that action is filed, disposition of the vehicle is paused pending the outcome of the court proceedings, which is what stops the car from being titled out from under the owner. Section 49-1808(5) warns that the declarant may be liable for court costs if judgment is entered for the lienholder.

The tow procedure hearing under § 49-1809 is faster but narrower. It is available only where an authorized officer initiated the tow or storage under § 49-1804 (accidents, driver arrests, vehicles found under extraordinary circumstances) or § 49-1805 (roadside abandoned vehicles). The owner or an agent must send a written hearing request to the department within ten calendar days of the date of the initial notice, and the hearing must be held within forty-eight hours of the request, excluding weekends and holidays. The public agency may use its own officer or employee as hearing officer so long as that person is not the one who directed the storage. Failing to request or to attend a scheduled hearing satisfies the requirement as to that person. Section 49-1809(5) puts the money where the finding is: if reasonable cause for the tow and storage cannot be established at the hearing, the agency that employed the person who authorized the tow is responsible for the towing and storage costs. Critically, § 49-1809(4) states that the section does not apply to vehicles removed from posted property under § 49-1806, so a tow from a private apartment or business lot gets no administrative hearing at all. The remedy there is the declaration of opposition and a district court suit.

On the towing company's side, the enforcement is economic rather than criminal. Section 49-1811(5) strips a company of all storage, impound, unauthorized repair and other fees, leaving only the scheduled tow fee, when it misroutes the vehicle, wrongly refuses release, or performs unauthorized repairs. A charge above the filed rate sheet is deemed excessive under § 49-1814(2). On the owner's side, removing a towed or booted vehicle without paying all lawful charges is a misdemeanor under § 49-1811(2), and the vehicle may be recovered and returned to the place of storage. Idaho state police maintain an authorized tow list with background checks under § 49-1812, and local governments maintain their own tow lists under § 49-1813, so a persistent complaint about a rotation company also has a place to land.